certificated at last

[calimac]

I am not generally a proponent of conspiracy theories, certainly not the ones that are more implausible than any implausibilities they seek to explain. But it does seem to me that, if the conspiracy is not true, there ought to be plain simple answers to the questions that the conspiracy theorists raise, even if they ignore or deny those answers.

In many cases there are. I am aware, for instance, that when JFK assassination conspiracy theorists say that it was impossible for the "magic bullet" to behave as the Warren report stated, or that Oswald couldn't have squeezed off that many shots in such a short time, these claims are not true, though I'm not well-versed enough to conduct an argument against those who make them. I am better versed in countering claims that the Moon landings were faked. In the case of 9/11 conspiracies, simple logic makes the case: if it really was impossible for the towers to have pancaked as a result of the plane crashes, then it was remarkably stupid of the conspirators to have blown them up; if it wasn't impossible, then they didn't do it.

So it's annoying to have a conspiracy theory that is obviously complete nonsense, yet for which the simple answer to the simple question was not supplied. And the simple question was, "Where is Obama's original birth certificate?" The document previously supplied as his birth certificate, while unquestionably an official document from the state of Hawaii usable for any ordinary legal purposes, like applying for a passport, is not the original 1961 document, but one created at a later time, certifying to the state's possession of the record. But since the Obama campaign released this document, why couldn't they release the original? I've seen several answers to this question, none of them satisfactory.

1) The released document is the original. (Obviously not true.)
2) The originals of that era were destroyed when the information was computerized. (Possible, but inconsistent with #3.)
3) State officials have inspected the original, but they can't legally release it; only Obama can request a copy. (But Obama requested and released a copy of the later document, so why not this one?)

For three years I've wondered about this, ill-equipped to fight off nutcases who think his impecunious student mother inexplicably flew off to Kenya just to have her baby, and then came back to Hawaii to try to pretend she hadn't done it. Anyway, here it finally is: a scan of Obama's original birth certificate.

What took so long?

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

The whole thing was really bizarre. I mentally classed birthers as the right wing's analog of the (predominantly left wing) 9/11 truthers. But I can't see what Obama was accomplishing by not just publishing the original right away. Being secretive about it just encouraged people to wonder what he had to hide. It seemed like a really bad tactical choice at a time when his tactical sense generally looked a lot better.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I don't think you realize just how bad the birthers made even the racist nutjobs look. There was never any questions of Obama's birth (as opposed to McCain, who wasn't born in the US; classic GOP slight of hand).

No one ever followed up a Birther question with "Do you believe Elvis is still alive" or "Were you ever kidnapped by aliens or do you know anyone who was." I bet the correlations are high.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

There does come a point of diminishing returns, where releasing additional information just degrades your privacy and wastes your time without propitiating the nutjobs. (And indeed, I predict there will be claims that the new document is either a recent forgery or that it was a lie at the time. You can never win them all, especially when the rel motivating force here is a gut feeling that a black liberal can't be a real American.) But that point of diminishing returns does not lie between releasing the default form of your birth certificate and releasing the original.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

However, someone did follow it up with the delightful question, "So do you think Donald Trump was born in the US?"

I am convinced that the 7% who said "probably or definitely not", having just been faced with the stupidity of the same question regarding Obama, were those who said, "Donald Trump wasn't born on this planet."

[(Anonymous)]

Here (http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/blog/2011/04/27/thankfully-andrew-sullivan-is-not-a-lawyer/) it says that "in order to release this document, the President had to ask to be treated as being above the law" in Hawaii.

-MTD/neb

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Did you read the comments? The commenters are a lot better-informed than the original poster.

[chorale.livejournal.com]

i didn't know that McCain wasn't born in the US. I wonder why that hasn't received more publicity.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Because the circumstances don't make him ineligible for the presidency. (Though if McCain were a Democrat, Republicans would certainly pretend that they did.) He was born in Panama, during the Canal occupation days, while his father, a Navy officer, was stationed there.

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't: there was only one comment when I read that post. I have now, and I agree with you. Thanks.

-MTD/neb